It is important to note that the Freedom of Information Act 1982 only applies to documents of an administrative nature (see section 5 of the FOI Act), and not to documents which are characterised as judicial in nature. Court documents such as case records, orders, affidavits and counselling records, are records of a legal process, not an administrative process and, therefore, are not subject to the FOI Act 1982.
If you are a party to a case, or are not a party but have a sufficient interest in the case or in information from the case file and the Court has given you permission, you may inspect the records of the Court relating to the case. Arrangements to do this have to be made in advance through the client services manager in the registry where the file is located. If you are not a party and need special permission, your request will be considered by a registrar.
When you inspect case records, you will be shown only the Court documents filed, unless the Court has given you special permission to see any other documents. These additional documents for which special permission is required include correspondence with the file which may be between other parties and the Court and any transcripts on the file.
Information on how to obtain a transcript of your court matter.
The Court may be prepared to make applicable information and documents available to you without following a formal process under the FOI Act. You can contact the FOI Contact Officer by post, email or fax to enquire if information or documents can be made available without you having to make a formal request.
You should also check the information the Court has published under the Information Publication Scheme on its FOI disclosure log to see if what you are seeking has already been made publicly available.
An FOI request must:
If you ask another person to make an FOI request on your behalf, you need to provide a specific, written authority to send copies of documents to you, care of that person, or to allow that person to inspect copies of documents containing information about you.
There is no application fee for an FOI request.
There are no processing charges for requests seeking documents containing your own personal information. However, processing charges may apply to other types of requests. The most common charges are:
If the Court decides to impose a charge, you will be given a written estimate and the basis of the calculation. Where the estimated charge is between $20 and $100, you may be asked to pay a deposit of $20, or where the estimated charge exceeds $100, you may be asked to pay a 25% deposit before your request is processed.
You can ask for the charge to be waived or reduced for any reason, including financial hardship or on the grounds of public interest. If you do so, you should explain your reasons and you may need to provide some evidence.
By post:
The Freedom of Information Officer
Family Court of Australia
GPO Box 9991
Canberra ACT 2601
By email: clientfeedback@familycourt.gov.au
By fax: 02 6243 8737
You will be told within 14 days that the Court has received your request. You will also be given an estimate of the charges that apply to your request. You will be given a decision about your request within 30 days unless that time has been extended. If a document contains information about another person, the Court will need to consult them and may need to extend the time to give you a decision by another 30 days. The Court may also ask for your agreement to extend the time by up to 30 days if your request is complex.
When a decision is made about your FOI request, the Court will send you a letter explaining its decision and your review and appeal rights.
You can ask for the following decisions to be reviewed:
You can request in writing that the Court reconsider its decision through an internal review. An internal review will be conducted by another officer from the Court. You will be advised of the new decision within 30 days of the Court receiving your request.
You can ask the Australian Information Commissioner to review the Court’s original decision or its internal review decision within 60 days of the date of decision (or 30 days after you are notified if you are another person affected by the decision). The Information Commissioner can affirm or vary the decision or substitute a new decision. The Information Commissioner may decide not to conduct a review in certain circumstances. More information is available at the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) website.
View the Freedom of Information (FOI) Reform on the Attorney General's Department website at http://www.ag.gov.au/Freedomofinformation/Pages/FOI-Reforms.aspx
If you are unhappy with the way the Court has handled your request, you can complain to the Australian Information Commissioner who may investigate the Court’s actions. More information is available on the OAIC’s website. The Commonwealth Ombudsman can also investigate complaints about the Court actions about your request. However, the Commonwealth Ombudsman and the Information Commissioner will talk to each other to avoid the same matter being investigated twice.
If you require more information, please contact the FOI Contact Officer by phone on 02 6243 8719 or by email at clientfeedback@familycourt.gov.au.